European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 21, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Is modern technology draining the life out of recorded music by Stephen Wizler the Baltimore Sun in the beginning phonograph records were souvenirs snapshots in sound that tried to be Aith Lul reflections of what music lovers heard inthe concert Hall. But in the last 40 years 1he reproduction has progressively asserted its Independence from the original. If records once imitated concert Hall performances now in is live performances that reflect records. Ii is the Tail say Many musicians that now wags the dog Wilh the recent introduction of digital editing and compact discs it seems that records have become As distinct irom concerts As films Are from theater. Because most listeners now get most of their musical experiences irom records they come to concerts with expectations of brilliance immediacy presence and accuracy thai have been developed in their living rooms. And a generation of performers who have grown up in help Era have been equally affected. Their inter relive creativity has been impeded by the continual bombardment of recorded interpretations and their it Edom to take risks restricted by expectations induced by Tho electronically perfected interpretations on discs. The a float of recordings on concert performances has been astounding in its breadth from making the Standard repertory so familiar that it threatens to become state to changing the Way violins Are is rung and pianos Are made. The medium of recordings has become the  says concert pianist Eugene Istomin. Recordings so influence the Way we listen and the Way we play that now we try to make records out of our concerts too often i be heard after a concert and from people who should know better that in was Good enough to make a record " the 62 year old Istomin who began making records in the 7b-rpm Era. Says that the technology of the recording studio has created a situation in which wrong note Are like original sin and Many younger artists agree. In records today we hear performances in which things that Are . Al of the Way people play have been removed As if they were misprints in a Booc says 43-year-old pianist Richard goods. The danger is that we Are settling into a Frame of mind in which the dominant energies Are negative worrying about anything that might be construed As a flaw a mistake or a Lack of clarity. Clean vacuum pocked purity is Boring. The sensation of life is created by irregularity. In fact that s what keeps you  Goode who is now completing a recording of Beethoven s 32 piano sonatas says that it is still possible to play fearlessly in record sessions in you can psych yourself up and make yourself feel that a real performance is taking  but he insists that modern technology has created a slate of mind that prevents most performances today on records and off from having the kind of sweep and sense of Lino that they had in previous generations. If you look Al old recordings the artists did t care about notes As  agrees pianist Krystian Elmerman. The artists of the past tried to create the atmosphere suggested by the notes. What has happened is thai you just hear the notes today. Tha microphones Are too close the recording equipment is too precise. Ii reminds me of looking too closely at a Post impressionistic painting of a girl in a Garden you realize that it s just a Bunch of Little dots. You have Beautiful sounds Beautiful Small details and the shape of the piece  How to Deal with camera shake Brand Grundberg new York times Hen was an infant expected my parents to Lake care of things like food and Sheller. T assumed that they always had everything under perfect control. Only later when i was forced to provide for myself did i find out that Lile in t always As neat As it seems. Wilh today s automatic cameras it s the same Story. They Promise us Carefree no fault photography. We take their word Lor it like infants we assume that they arc omnipotent and infallible. We Don t have to worry about of slops shutter speeds and focusing since the cameras have it All under co Liol. Unfortunately the notion that we can get perfect pictures every Lime without knowing anything about photography is a myth. It s a myth that camera makers keep trying to convert into reality but so far they be Only gotten close. I have taken pictures with a wide variety of supposed idiot proof Point and shoot cameras i be looked at hundreds of color prints taken by friends and family using the same sorts of Auto everything cameras. And i have yet to see a Roll in which every print comes out exactly the Way i would want it to. One of the most frequent failings i be encountered is blur. This is not a consequence of bad focusing which is another problem automatic cameras have but of an insufficiently fast shutter Speed most often camera shake is the ultimate culprit. Camera shake produces a different kind of blur than subject motion. If everything about your picture is Sharp except Uncle Harry then Uncle Harry probably moved during the time the shutter was open. But if everything in the picture is Blurry then you probably moved the camera during the exposure. That s camera shake. Camera shake also produces a different kind of fuzziness than being out of locus. The difference is hard to describe but in an out of focus picture usually something will be Sharp. In a picture afflicted with camera shake the whole image will look like it is sliding off the paper. Ii there Are Light sources in Tho image you la see Bright streaks instead of soft dots. Camera shake is caused by a combination of the shutter s slowness and the photographer s unsteadiness. We All jiggle through life with a degree of unsteadiness but some hands Are More shaky than others. Sometimes to take pictures on the run without bothering to Brace ourselves and the camera before shooting. Ii the camera s shutter in t fast enough our involuntary motions become visible in the image. With manual cameras or shutter priority automatic sirs it s always a Good policy to set the shutter Speed to at least the reciprocal of the focal length in use. If you re using a 50mm Lens the slowest Sale Speed is 1-60 second. If you re using a 135mm Tele the Speed goes up to 1-125 or to be Safe 1-250, simple Point and shool cameras with lenses in the 36 to 4s-mm Range Don t need especially High speeds of prevent camera shake. But their automatic exposure programs frequently Call for shutter speeds in the neighbourhood of 1-45 second which Are slow enough to blur grab shots taken with one hand while leaning out a car window. When should we be careful to hold the camera steady unfortunately most automatic cameras Lor beginning photographers won t say. The exposure is set automatically and mysteriously by a Little computer Chip. In some cases a Low Light bulb inside the viewfinder May go on to Tell you that the shutter Speed is in the camera shake Range. With other cameras you have to guess. You can however anticipate camera shake on your own. La s most Likely to occur when Light Levels Are Low. With the Lens open to its maximum aperture the Auto exposure system s Only alternative is to slow Down the shutter. One solution to this dilemma use a higher Speed film in dim Light situations the one or two slops you la gain May be enough to alleviate the problem turning on the hash if the camera does t do in automatically is another option but not necessarily a cure All. Page 16 the stars and stripes Friday october 21,1988